[32519]

This hand came up at our local club last night. Poor defence gave declarer 12 tricks. Yet the contract can be defeated in more than one way. Which way would you suggest as defender?

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[twcho]

If the declarer guesses the trump, there is no way that defender can get more than one trick.

[32519]

East must continue with any of the suits excluding ♠. Look at the pressure that you now place declarer under. With 9 trumps headed by the Ace and King, it is considered normal to play to drop the Queen.
So now declarer, after trumping a ♥ continuation or a ♣ switch in dummy must make a decision, a) play for the drop, or b) play for the Queen hook. It is easy to make judgements when you can see all 4 hands. At the table, declarer can only see 2 and has a tough decision to make. If he gets it wrong he is down whichever way you look at it.

So the question really is, which of the 3 other suits does East continue with to maximize the pressure on declarer?

[sfi]

32519, on 2013-January-30, 02:43, said:

So the question really is, which of the 3 other suits does East continue with to maximize the pressure on declarer?

Who cares? They all achieve the same thing. I would back a good declarer to make 12 tricks though.

[WellSpyder]

32519, on 2013-January-30, 02:43, said:

East must continue with any of the suits excluding ♠.

A ♦ switch is unlikely to defeat the contract! Declarer will play two rounds of trumps finishing in dummy, and when the ♠Q does not drop declarer will simply switch to diamonds, making 11 tricks.

[32519]

WellSpyder, on 2013-January-30, 05:36, said:

A ♦ switch is unlikely to defeat the contract! Declarer will play two rounds of trumps finishing in dummy, and when the ♠Q does not drop declarer will simply switch to diamonds, making 11 tricks.

A ♦ switch keeps it to 10. Two rounds of trumps ending in dummy still leaves that third vital trump to get back to dummy. Declarer has already lost the ♥A and now loses to the trump queen as well at the continuation of the ♦ suit. A ♥ from hand goes on the ♠Q still leaving a ♥ loser in hand.

So how about a ♣ switch?

[Zelandakh]

32519, on 2013-January-30, 06:43, said:

A ♦ switch keeps it to 10. Two rounds of trumps ending in dummy still leaves that third vital trump to get back to dummy. Declarer has already lost the ♥A and now loses to the trump queen as well at the continuation of the ♦ suit. A ♥ from hand goes on the ♠Q still leaving a ♥ loser in hand.

Sorry, what? ♥A, ♦K, ♠A, ♠K, ♦A (ruffed), ruff the rounded suit return and run ♦s. Where is the third defensive trick?

32519, on 2013-January-30, 06:43, said:

So how about a ♣ switch?

Looks the same as continuing hearts but less natural.

[PeterAlan]

32519, on 2013-January-30, 06:43, said:

A ♦ switch keeps it to 10. Two rounds of trumps ending in dummy still leaves that third vital trump to get back to dummy. Declarer has already lost the ♥A and now loses to the trump queen as well at the continuation of the ♦ suit. A ♥ from hand goes on the ♠Q still leaving a ♥ loser in hand.

No, WellSpyder is right, it's 11 tricks not 10. Yes, there's a ♥ loser in hand, but so what? There are also 3 ♣ losers - declarer ruffs one of these 4 losers to get back to dummy, and the rest all go away on the ♦s.

In a nutshell:

• the position is essentially the same on either a ♣ or a ♥ return - declarer needs to get the ♠s right to make the contract, but then has 12 tricks
  
• on a ♦ return, again if declarer gets ♠s right 12 tricks are there, but WellSpyder's line is safe for 11 on any 3-1 or 2-2 trump break

[billw55]

3♦ LOL

Was this the real auction?

[Fluffy]

32519, on 2013-January-30, 06:43, said:

A ♦ switch keeps it to 10. Two rounds of trumps ending in dummy still leaves that third vital trump to get back to dummy. Declarer has already lost the ♥A and now loses to the trump queen as well at the continuation of the ♦ suit. A ♥ from hand goes on the ♠Q still leaving a ♥ loser in hand.

LOL Defensive tricks get multiplied like if they were bread and fish, you can't lose ♠Q more than once per hand, isn't there a law for this?

BTW if you ever want to make a finese unfinesable double dummy just make it really unfinesable like giving west ♠QJx

[32519]

On a ♣ switch, declarer has to guess the ♠ situation. If you guess wrong, down she goes. You can never get back to dummy if you play to drop the ♠Q in 2.

♦ is 11, my mistake.

[Zelandakh]

And a heart continuation too, except that is more obvious given that partner (presumably) encouraged on trick 1. Incidentally, I am not so sure declarer should not get the trumps right here anyway. There is not very much difference a priori between the finesse and a drop with 9 and here we have a reasonable inference from the bidding that spade length by West is more likely.

[FrancesHinden]

Any South who overcalls 3D is not going to take a spade finesse.

[sfi]

FrancesHinden, on 2013-February-07, 14:55, said:

Any South who overcalls 3D is not going to take a spade finesse.

Does that apply to their partner as well? Given that North bid over it, I presume 3♦ is not weak even if the player is.

[S2000magic]

billw55, on 2013-January-30, 07:35, said:

3♦ LOL

Was this the real auction?

My thoughts exactly.